2 January 2012

we had a pretty uneventful week here. nothing terribly exciting. i went on splits with the zone leaders on wednesday and with my friend elder butler on Friday. its always nice to go on splits!

Saturday was awesome! kinda. Chat got baptized which was awesome! it was such a good service! elder matekel gave a talk (cause i secretly volunteered him to do so :P he doesn't know it was my fault lol) and chat was so so excited to be baptized! it was really cool to see how much it meant to her! it made me want to have some more baptisms! and then after the baptism, chat and her family cook a feast of Philipeno food and it was delicious. that was pretty much our whole Saturday. as missionaries we had to be home by 6pm, so we just came home and played monopoly the 2 of us. elder matekel beat me, so i went to bed angry at about 10:30 lol. no fireworks or dance parties for us.

this coming week i am hoping to get a transfer call to someplace far away. I love the people in the areas that i am in, but i think it would be really good to start off this new year in a new place with a new companion.

here's a poem that i read that i really like:

Windows Of Heaven

When the sky was blue,
my heart was brittle,
dry to blistered souls
seeking drink.

So God hung black clouds low,
let loose His floods,
and poured forth more
than i could hold.

I sputtered and choked.
He wrapped a hand around my heart
and wrung out sustenance
for others.

The sky is gray,
but my heart is soft.
In drier days,
it would have
Crumbled.

I hope everyone is well! and i hope that you take a chance and set some goals for the new year :) new chances are pretty sweet, and in a lot of ways, a new year can be a new chance! think about all the thing we can achieve over the next year :)

remember what the Cheshire Cat said: "It doesn't matter what path you take, if you dont know where you're going." im working on figuring out where im going, so that i can actually get there!

love you all,
elder donovan :)

26 December 2011

Hey yall :)

 Hope everyone's christmas was awesome! mine was  :) although i missed you guys!

Be good. make a goal to keep your christmas cheer ALL year :)

<3 donovan :)

ps. mail should again be sent to only the ALLEN LANE address.

you guys are the best!

Pictures

Chambers, Mendez, Norris, Mouser, and Butler

Elder Mario

Needs a Hair Cut

19 December 2011

So i dont have much time today, i spent most of my emailing time talking to the bank. somehow sports illustrated got my card number and tried to force me to buy a subscription. so we'll see how that goes....

this week was really good! matekel and i taught more lessons than we have ever taught in a week and we went to like 4 church christmas parties/concerts with our investigators.

chat decided she wanted to get baptized on new years eve instead of christmas eve.

we've got a couple christmas eve dinners we are going to and a couple christmas dinners as well.

i might not email next week, idk if the computer lab will be open....

here's my favorite quote of the week....
"what we have once enjoyed we can never lose. all that we love becomes a part of us."
-helen keller

lets be honest: its pretty cool she could say ANYTHING

check out this video: The Coat: A Story of Charity

i hope you all have a wonderful christmas! remember that we are all children of God. everyone is! we are all born into different circumstances and we all have our own faults. we all have PLENTY of them! dont judge ppl. LOVE them.

love you all!

elder donovan :)

Pictures

Elder Pomee and Elder Chambers

Gary's Baptism

Jumper Cables?

12 December 2011

uuuuuummmmmm, im trying to think of things that happened this past week.....

Chat is awesome! we've had 2 lessons with her so far. we'll have 2 more this week and then she wants to be baptized on christmas eve! so thats pretty cool!

I'm seriously struggling to think of what we did this week...
I asked elder matekel what we did, he said, "stuff". he is always so helpful!

We had stake conference this sunday, that was pretty cool. everyone that spoke, spoke about joy.

I recently started a study of the gospels. thats been pretty cool! im just going through them chronologically, so lots of flipping pages and looking at footnotes and stuff, but its been cool comparing the different accounts of Christs life.
(i started doing this study because I made it to Alma in the BoM and didnt want to keep going cause Alma is so dang long lol)

everyone should check out these videos http://lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng  They are Awesome!

I'm not really looking forward to christmas without all of you. It wont be full of it's usual excitement. but im sure we'll have a good time here! we've got a couple little christmas parties coming up this week that should help us get the Christmas cheer :) and everyone is a little nicer to us now that its almost Christmas, so thats always good as well.

idk what else to write y'all :/

I love you :) and all of you are always in my prayers!

Here's a scripture to keep in mind:
"I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, ...and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions."
-Mosiah 24:14

Sorry this email was lame. i'll try to do better next week. i'll send some pictures to make up for it.

Love,
Elder Donovan Chambers :)

oh, okay, heres a story! we didnt have a car for a couple days, and i didnt have a bike helmet one morning, so we had to walk. not a big deal, except that we needed to go somewhere that was 8 miles away. so here's what we did: we went on a "faith walk" (i coined the term :) ). we said a prayer and said "we're gonna start walkin. if we could please get a ride that'd be awesome! if not, we're gonna be walkin for a long time. hopefully we'll meet someone along the way." and we set off! we walked for about 40 mins and then someone picked us up :) the end.

5 December 2011

Hey everybody! i miss you all! we had a pretty good week here :) its getting kinda cold, dipped below freezing a couple times.

the highlight of my week came when we were eating dinner with a member. it came time to leave and i was saying bye to everyone, and the little girl (probably 2 years old, her name is Paisley) ran up and gave my legs a big hug! and then a big kiss lol. it was pretty funny and really cute and made me miss Lily!

another highlight of the week: we recieved a refferal for a Philipeno lady named Chat. when we went over to meet her we found out that she was already taught by missionaries when she lived in the Phillipeans! she has already been to our ward in vegas 3 times and we have never met her, (we're only in that ward for sacrament meeting and then we leave right away, but still, you would think that someone would have told us she was there.) and she wants us to come over day so that we can finish the lessons, so that she can get baptized ASAP! so hopefully, if all goes as planned, by the next time i email we'll have finished all the lessons with her :) so that was pretty awesome! we have our first lesson schedualed with her tomorrow.

another highlight of the week: friday night we went to a chior concert at the stake center. there were about 8 chiors that performed. most were made up of mormons, but one of them was a baptist chior and it was awesome! it was cool to see some of the high-strung members loosen up a little bit and start standin up and clapping/dancing with the baptists. and the baptist minister had an awesome suit! it was black with purple trim. and his wife had GIANT hair lol. much cooler than the way our bishops dress!

well thats all ive got, I miss you!

-elder Chambers :)